Sadie knelt and laid Donatti carefully on the floor. Teeth and claws retracted, auburn fur shivered and pulled back as clothing formed around her. She’d gotten really good at using the collar’s glamour. She smiled at Ian as he dropped beside them, looking at once furious and relieved. “I think he’ll be fine,” she said. “He’s a tough son of a bitch.”
“Indeed, he is,” Ian said. “And you have my gratitude.”
Taeral didn’t even get a little angry. He flashed a quick smile, and then guided me to the nearest chair, since I didn’t have enough sense to sit down myself. “I cannot decide which of you is closer to death,” he said. “It seems Ian is handling Donatti. And I’ve a bit of spark left to heal you.”
I shook my head and tried to wave him off. “I’ll live,” I said, attempting to scan the room through pain-blurred vision. “Heal Frost first. She’s human, and … where is she?”
“Somebody please tell me what the hell’s going on.”
The tiny, shaken voice sounded nothing like the brash and angry agent I’d come to hate. I finally spotted her cowering against the far wall, staring wide-eyed at everything and nothing.
Just then, Eli peered over the back of the couch. “Badmen gone?” he squeaked.
Frost fixed her terrified gaze on him. She let out a long, ear-piercing shriek, and slumped unconscious to the floor.
CHAPTER 39
For at least an hour, no one bothered to move or speak much.
Frost was still out. Taeral and Sadie had placed her on the shorter couch, and I slumped in the easy chair beside her. Hopefully, she wouldn’t wake up screaming again. Donatti was half-conscious on the big couch with Ian next to him, and Taeral sat in the chair across from mine. Sadie was keeping Eli busy with snacks and a jigsaw puzzle at the table by the window. He was surprisingly good at it.
“So we’re okay with the wards, right?” I thought to ask eventually.
Taeral stirred. “Aye. Protected as we can be,” he said. “Though I doubt this Zee will be held off long.”
“At least we put a dent in the bastard’s human-battery power.” Donatti opened his eyes and grimaced as he tried to sit up. Ian gave him a stern look, and he stopped trying and collapsed with an exasperated eye-roll. “Took out, what, four of them?”
“I got three.” Sadie didn’t sound happy about it.
I tried to remember everything that happened. “Frost shot one of them, and I shot two. Donatti buried one,” I said. “That makes seven.”
“Hey, that’s more than four.” Donatti’s flash of good humor didn’t last long. “And still nowhere close to enough. Hell, I’m not convinced bringing down all fifty is gonna cut it.”
This time, no one disagreed. Not even Taeral.
I straightened a little and looked at Ian. There was something else I wanted to ask about, but I wasn’t quite sure how. “When Donatti was still … back there,” I said. “You knew he was hurt. You felt what he felt.” I’d realized that when I noticed Donatti had been stabbed in the same places Ian clutched at while he was going for the mirror. “Is that because he’s your scion?”
A pained expression settled on his face. “No, it is not,” he said slowly. “I … ”
“It’s not his fault, even though he’ll tell you it is.” Donatti spoke firmly and looked at Ian until he relented and dropped his gaze. With gritted teeth, he pushed up and swung his legs to the floor. “It’s the rohii’et. A soul bind spell,” he said. “We’re always connected. When one of us has extreme emotions, the other one feels it. Pain, anger, fear. And … other stuff.”
It took me a minute, but I figured out what he meant by ‘other stuff’. Ian had a wife, Donatti had a girlfriend. I assumed there were certain times they generated extreme emotions — ones they’d probably rather keep to themselves. “Um. That sounds awkward,” I said.
“We can turn it off with a little effort.” Donatti smiled, and Ian flushed dark for a second or two. “Besides, there’s more good things about it than bad,” he said. “When we’re feeling it, we can see through each other’s eyes. That’s saved our asses more than once. Plus, I get to be immortal now. Probably.”
I wondered why Ian thought it was his fault, but that seemed like a subject best left alone. “So this spell is why you’re bound to his tether,” I said. “And why you keep saying I can’t kill you, even if I try.”
“We are nearly certain that is the case.” Ian gave a reluctant smile. “Though I would prefer not to learn we are wrong by watching him die, or being destroyed myself.”
“Yeah, good plan,” Donatti said. “Let’s hope we can stick to it.”
I was about to try for something encouraging to say when I realized Frost’s eyes were open and staring right at me. At least she wasn’t screaming anymore.
But she looked ready to start again any second.
“Hey. Please don’t freak out,” I said, getting up to approach the couch. “I’ll explain everything, I promise. But you have to calm down. Okay?”
She flinched when I got close. If her eyes opened any wider, they’d fall out. But she nodded with her lips pressed tightly together, then scrambled upright and pushed into the corner of the couch, trying to look at everyone at once. “Okay,” she whispered. “Okay, just … no more teeth. Holy shit, everything had teeth.”
I sighed and sat down next to her. This was going to take a long time to explain.
“No. That’s just a flat-out lie.”
I actually groaned out loud. Once Frost settled down, she’d taken things more or less in stride. She accepted that Taeral and I were Fae, Sadie was a werewolf, Donatti and Ian were magic shapeshifters — I still didn’t want her to hear the word djinn — and Eli was … well, Eli. The acceptance was clinical and probably contingent on her not seeing any more teeth.
She understood that a different shapeshifter, one more powerful than any of us, had killed Agent Gilmore and the other Milus Dei members. She knew he’d sent his minions to kill her. She acknowledged, reluctantly, that she was safer at the Castle than anywhere else at this particular moment.
But she drew the fuck-no line when I tried to explain Zee’s motivations.
“Connie wasn’t like that,” she said. “No one is like that. I mean, yeah, our job is to find things — er, people like you. But that’s only to protect the rest of us.”
“Oh, really,” I said. “Protect you from what?”
“Well. From…”
“Monsters?”
She paled and looked away. “You saved my life,” she said slowly. “I don’t understand how, or why. I am grateful. But I just can’t believe the people I work for would do … all those things you said. Especially my sister.”
Taeral, who’d been mostly silent while I talked, leaned forward suddenly and held his metal arm out. “Believe what your eyes tell you, then,” he said, flexing his fingers with a faint pneumatic whine. “Your people have taken far more than my arm. From me, and from everyone I care for.”
She drew a startled breath, but then her face hardened again. “No,” she said. “Even if it happens somehow, which is highly unlikely … Connie would never. She’d never do that.”
“All right. Enough.” I stood from the couch and turned to her. “Come with me,” I said. “You need to see something.”
For a second I thought she’d refuse. But she got up with a determined set to her jaw and followed me over to the tables. Eli looked up briefly from his puzzle as we passed him and Sadie. When Frost didn’t shriek at him, he went back to pushing pieces around with careful deliberation.
I stopped at the next table and pulled a chair out for her. She sat down warily, and I pulled the file box from where it still rested beneath, after Donatti had finished with it. Zee’s folder was on top.
“Here.” I dropped the thick file in front of her. “Read it.”
Frowning, she opened the folder and looked at the top page. As she scanned the text, she went from resolute to confused, then shot straight through disbelief an
d shifted to trembling horror. Her eyes welled with tears. “Connie,” she whispered. “Oh, God, what did you do?”
She lifted the typed sheet with a shaking hand. And when her gaze fell on the first gruesome photo, she screamed and pushed the folder off the table. “No!” she shouted hoarsely, breaking into desperate gasps. “His eyes. His bones. Jesus, all that blood! How could they … how could she … ”
Her hands covered her face as sobs wracked her frame.
Not sure what to do, I put an arm around her, and she leaned into me. “I’m sorry,” I said. “You had to know, and that was the only way I could prove it.”
She was crying too hard to respond. I figured I’d just let her.
There was a scuffling sound next to me. I looked to find Eli trying to pick up the scattered file. “Whoops,” he chirped, scooting a few papers back into the folder. “Sorry, whoops. Sad she-friend. Wants paper.”
I tried not to laugh. “Thanks, Eli,” I said. “You don’t have to do that, though. I don’t think she wants the papers back.”
“Sad she-friend. Make happy.” He kept going, mostly sliding the papers around. By then Frost had calmed the storm a little and peered around me, watching him with fascination.
Sadie came over and crouched with him. “I’ll help you,” she said with a smile.
“Yes! Two-friend, better. Wurr says.” He pinched a stapled packet with his claws and lifted it carefully in the direction of the folder. And suddenly went very still. Abrupt clicking sounds came from his throat, and he trembled violently in place.
One of the photos had been face-up beneath the packet. A headshot of Zee with his distorted, fanged smile, and his huge eyes staring insanity into the camera.
“Eli?” Sadie said gently. “What is it?”
“Badman!” His piercing shriek drilled into my ears. He dropped the papers and skittered away on all fours, still screaming. “Badman-badman-badman-badman! Hurt Eli! No!”
When he reached the far corner of the room, he started clawing rapidly at the wall. “Run! Badmen!” he squealed on the edge of incoherence.
Sadie took off after him. The room was silent save for Eli’s increasingly shrill cries, and I gestured for Frost to stay put as I headed that way.
Taeral went over too, and between him and Sadie speaking gently and soothing him, Eli managed to settle into mere shivering terror. “Badmen,” he whisper-croaked. “Please, no badmen. Hurt Eli.”
I knelt in front of him and gave Sadie a questioning glance. She nodded. She knew I had to ask. “Eli,” I said. “The man in the picture. He’s the badman?”
“Yes. Very, very bad. Big, big eyes. Bad, bad magic-smell.”
My skin broke out in gooseflesh at the sheer terror behind his words. “And you’ve seen the badman before.”
He nodded frantically. “All badmen. In the down-there,” he said. “Big-tunnel. Down steps. Blood and burning and dead.”
“You have seen his lair.” Ian kept his distance from the panic-stricken Eli, but he moved forward cautiously. “If we can bring the fight to him, when he is not expecting it … perhaps we will have a chance.”
I didn’t dare hope too much, but my breath caught just the same. “Eli. Can you tell us exactly where the badman is?” I said.
“Big-tunnel. Many down-steps. Far down floor.” Eli shuddered fiercely as a frustrated expression scrunched his face. He wanted to explain, but he couldn’t. “Old burning,” he insisted. “In the down-there.”
“Eli got into the Castle through the basement,” I said. “From the subtunnels. I think that’s the down-there.”
Taeral closed his eyes in thought. “Big tunnel. Down steps. Burning,” he murmured. “Eli, does the big tunnel have tiles? Walls made of small squares, like a bathroom?”
Eli brightened a little. “Yes. Bath-room. Wurr lets me play in water.” He looked at Taeral cautiously. “Big-tunnel tiles. Old burning. Yes?”
“Aye, that’s right,” Taeral said. “I understand. Thank you, Eli.”
Ian raised an eyebrow. “You know this place, then?”
“We all do,” he said. “Zee and his followers are in the Hive.”
CHAPTER 40
I had no idea what to do with Frost, so I put her in my room.
The general consensus was to mount an attack on the Hive. But we couldn’t even start to think about how or when for a while yet. Everyone was drained and battered, still healing, and still mostly convinced we were headed straight for our deaths. Which would be quickly followed by the deaths of everyone we knew, along with the rest of the world.
Knowing that our failure would trigger an apocalypse wasn’t exactly good for morale.
Everyone had turned in soon after Eli dropped the bomb on Zee’s location. I’d called Abe first, told him I was safe and not currently under arrest, and asked him to have my van towed to the precinct, to be picked up at an unknown time. He didn’t ask, even though I knew he wanted to. And I promised to explain everything later.
I managed not to say if there is a later.
I’d fallen asleep on a blanket on the floor of my room, after I managed to convince Frost she could use the bed. By nightfall I was awake. Leaving Frost to rest, I crept out into a silent hallway and moved through the sleeping Castle. Right now the moon would be slightly past half-full. I figured I’d sit outside a while and recharge my pendant.
The moon-sword was the one thing I knew would hurt Zee. And we needed every advantage we could get.
Thanks to either an unseasonable weather front or global warming, it was merely chilly outside. The dusting of snow had melted during the day, and once the sun went down, the grass formed frozen, frost-etched blades that sparkled in the moonlight. It was a pretty sight, but for some reason it made me sad. Maybe because there was a good chance I was running out of winter nights to enjoy.
My van wasn’t here, and the Castle didn’t have a porch. Just an overhang and a cement stoop. I decided I’d rather sit on the cold ground than the frozen concrete, so I walked a ways into the yard and settled on the grass. I closed my eyes and thought about Zee, and songs. What it must be like if everyone had their own … and he could hear all of them at once. Billions of songs, each one different, and maybe just some of them — or none of them — blending together. That was as much sense as I could make out of his raving.
And if it was even close to true, I figured I’d be insane too.
I wasn’t sure how long I’d been out there when the front door opened and Frost stepped outside, looking only slightly calmer than she had before. She spotted me and approached uncertainly. “Your … desk man said you were out here. At least, I think that’s what he said. If he’s a he, I mean.”
“Yeah. That’s Grygg, and he’s male.” I started to get up.
“No, wait,” she said. “I think I’d like to sit out here, too. If you don’t mind.”
I shrugged. “Ground’s cold. And wet.”
“That’s fine.” She sat next to me, hugged her knees to her chest, and released a shaking breath. “The whole world is so different,” she said softly. “I mean, I woke up this morning in one place, one reality, and now it’s … gone.”
I remembered feeling exactly the same way, the first time I saw a certain auburn-haired girl turn into a wolf. But I still didn’t get why Frost was so deeply shocked. She worked for an Other-hunting cult. “You did say you’re Milus Dei, right?”
She closed her eyes. “Yes, I did. But it’s not like I started out that way,” she said. “I joined the NSA to protect people. You know? And one of my first cases, I arrested someone who turned out to be … not human.” Another shuddering breath. “I had no idea at the time. The bust wasn’t easy. I ended up injured, and when I came back to work, I’d been transferred to administration in a division I’d never heard of. Covert Bio-Terrorism Operations. Three years of seeing nothing but paperwork, until now.”
“So you didn’t actually join Milus Dei?” I said. “They just put you there?”
S
he frowned. “Well, I didn’t fight it,” she said. “Huge pay increase, more responsibility, my own team. All I had to do was not ask questions and be willing to spout off a bunch of ‘that’s classified’ nonsense when other people asked. Oh, and there was this, too.” She reached down and pulled her pants leg up, revealing a Milus Dei tattoo on her ankle. “I really should’ve questioned that. I mean, mandatory tattoos? Who does that?”
Damn. This really was all new to her. The idea that Milus Dei was just shoving people into the middle of their war without any choice pissed me off to new levels. “I’m sorry that happened to you,” I said. “Unfortunately, I’m not that surprised. I already know what they’re capable of.” I looked up and sighed at the stars. “But you didn’t. And that sucks.”
“Connie talked me into it, more than anything.” Her voice had gotten small again. “She said she was doing great work. Security, national protection, even medicine. They were going to change the world. Cure cancer, shit like that.” She shuddered all over. “And I believed her. God, I was so stupid.”
“No. You’re not.” I put an arm around her, hoping to ease her shivering. And I was absolutely not going to enjoy how warm and solid she felt. Or think about how long it’d been since I so much as touched a woman. “They’re the bad guys,” I said.
“But you’re not. Are you?” She snuggled into me and twisted to look up with those green eyes of hers. This time the hate was gone from them. “You’re one of the good guys, Black. And I’m sorry I missed that.”
“Er. Call me Gideon.” If there was a mood here, I was blowing it — but that was probably a good thing. “I’m sure you know my name isn’t really Black.”
Her brow knotted. “Actually, I didn’t,” she said. “You don’t have a birth certificate, remember? And that’s the name on your license. Gideon Black.”
“Oh.”
I was hoping she’d drop the issue there, but she didn’t. “So what is your name, then?”
City of Secrets (The DeathSpeaker Codex Book 5) Page 15
